Heartfelt
by Angel Weasel-Woman
Summary: After winning the World Cup, Tai comes home to devastating news...


Tai stepped off the plane as the crowd at the airport cheered. He waved along with the rest of his team and yawned, glad to be out of Italy and back on his home soil despite his jet lag. He hoped Izzy would forgive his tiredness and maybe let him sneak in a nap on the way home. The landing was roped off and Yukiko had set it upon herself to gather her team's luggage. Tai watched her leave, scanning the crowd for the familiar mop of red hair. _'He's so short,'_ Tai reminded himself, _'He might just be buried behind someone.'_

But his short lover was nowhere to be seen, and Tai found himself panicking slightly. "Yuki-chan!" He called. "You haven't gotten a call or anything, have you?"

The dark haired manager hauled a blue suitcase off the spindle. "A call? Oh, I never turned the emergency phone back on!"

She pulled out an ancient flip phone, holding the button to bring it to life. "Is something wrong?" She asked, waiting for it to blip on.

"I'm not sure..."

_Ba-ding!_

Yukiko held the phone to her ear, mouthing, "One message."

Tai strained to listen to the tinny voice that tried to desperately escape the old speaker. Yukiko listened intently, brow furrowing before she gasped. She quickly began dialing a number, whispering breathlessly, "I'm going to get you a cab, Tai. You need to go home right away."

Fear froze Tai's heart. "Are my kids ok?"

"They're fine, but your husband needs you."

"I-Izzy! Is he ok?!"

"Go," was all Yukiko would tell him. "I'm getting you a cab now. I'll send someone with your things."

Tai ran down the airport corridors, thankful for once that he spent so much time in them. He found each shortcut, ducking behind every wall he could to avoid the crowd, eagerly welcoming home their World Cup champions.

True to his manager's word, there was a cab waiting in the parking lot and Tai flew inside. He didn't even have to tell the driver where to go, Yukiko already having given the address. He fretted the whole, excruciatingly long way to Odaiba, running his hands through his hair over and over, yanking out the dark strands. Every moment that passed, he could only spend in horror that some terrible accident had befallen Izzy or, despite Yukiko's reassurances, either of his kids.

The cab pulled over in front of his house and Tai gave the man everything in his wallet. There was plenty more in his bank, and he honestly wasn't worried about it at the moment. He ran over, flinging open the door. He felt his knees grow weak and almost cried in relief as he saw his husband sitting in the foyer, worried and hazy-eyed, but alive and in one piece.

"Izzy?" He called. As though in a daze, the younger man finally looked up. "Izzy, is everything ok? Are the kids all right?"

"They're fine," Izzy told him. "They're safe and I already dropped them off with my parents. Tai..." He swallowed hard. "It's your dad. He's in the hospital. He had a heart attack."

Izzy reached out as Tai almost collapsed. "Is he going to be ok? When did this happen?!"

"It was last night. They rushed him to the ER. The doctor says he's weak. Kari and your mom are already there with him." Izzy placed a shaking hand on his husband's shoulder. "I'll drive us downtown."

"Yeah... Let's go."

* * *

><p>Shinjuku Hospital loomed ominously overhead, Tai watching the building while dread filled the pit of his stomach. Though he normally preferred to drive, he could only sit, slumped in the passenger side. Izzy was beside himself. He wanted nothing more than to hold and reassure his husband, to kiss him and tell him everything was going to be all right.<p>

He pulled into the dropoff zone, asking softly, "Tai? Do you want me to come in, too?"

Tai gave him an odd look, one Izzy hadn't seen since long ago in the Digital World. A flash of desperation and longing darkened Tai's eyes before he shook his head.

"Just... know I love you." He reached out, taking Izzy's hand and kissing his knuckles.

A car behind them honked impatiently, and Tai jerked away suddenly, as though he'd forgotten where he was. Before Izzy could say anything, the tall brunette took off to the lobby.

The nurse at the desk was a sweet young thing, one Tai would have flirted with under different circumstances, who earnestly looked sympathetic as she looked in her computer.

"Kamiya, Kenichi. He was taken out of ICU this morning. He's on the fifth floor, room 529. He is currently accepting visitors."

Tai made a movement that might have been a nod and drifted off to the elevators. He wasn't aware of when he'd done it, but the number 5 button was lit up and the lift was slowly climbing into the sky. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he missed Izzy, knowing the short redhead would be appalled at his manners. One of his polite chastisements would be more than welcome right now.

The elevator stopped at each floor, agonizingly slow as it opened and closed its doors for busy nurses and distracted families. He was glad, for once, that there was no recognition in the faces around him, and he was free to dwell in his own thoughts. He really hoped that his father was still out of it when he arrived.

The bell dinged and the button for his floor dimmed. A nurse, reading a chart to an important-looking doctor pushed past him. Tai tried to move his legs, though his feet felt bolted to the ground. He'd been so worried about his father that he hadn't even considered the fact that they hadn't seen each other in so long. He was about to let the doors slide shut, burying him behind thin metal sheets, when his name was called out.

"Tai! Thank God!"

His sister was standing down the hall. He could see from where he was how red her eyes were. Even if he wasn't sure about his father, he knew his sister, at least, needed him. She ran to him, meeting him halfway and throwing herself into his chest. She cried into his shirt as he held her tight.

"Kari, how... how is he?"

"Mom's in with him now. They said he was at his desk at the office and just..." She sniffled. "Grabbed his chest and collapsed."

Tai rubbed her back, blinking through a teary haze. He felt a sob rise in his throat, but he refused to let it pass. He had to stay strong for his sister whose light was dimming quickly. He walked her down the hall, taking a seat at the bench sitting just outside the room marked "Kamiya".

"Is TK here with you?" He asked softly, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.

"No, he said he needed to speak to God." She pulled a soaked tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes. "He's been to Confession every day this week, I think God can hear him."

"TK's been... hurting, since Patamon left. Church is the only thing he has left to connect them."

"I know. I just wish he would spend as much time with the kids as he did at that church." Tai hugged her tight, kissing her on the top of her head. "Though, to be honest, I have been thinking about going to the chapel on the first floor."

"The nurse said he was going to be all right," Tai told her. "Faith isn't only about going to church."

Kari nodded at her brother's serene wisdom. She blew her nose and took a quivering breath as the door opened. Their mother stepped out of the room, looking just as haggard as her daughter. Her eyes fell of her son, and she gasped.

"Oh, Tai! I didn't think you'd come!" Tai stood and he was immediately enveloped in his mother's arms. No matter how tall he got, she was still able to cradle him to her chest. "I wasn't sure if your..." She glanced over her shoulder to the room her husband was in. "Friend... would give you the news."

"Mom," Tai sighed. "We've been married for years, we have two kids together, you can call him my husband. At least use his name!"

"I know that," his mother snapped. Hospitals still made her lose her temper. "Izzy is a good boy."

Tai didn't want to have this conversation again. He pulled away from his mother. "Is dad awake?"

She blinked, as though she had expected him to say anything but that. "Tai... I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why not? Isn't he going to be ok?" He didn't want Kari to think he was a liar.

"He will," his mother began. "But the doctor said to keep his stress levels down, and, well..."

Tai glared, pulling away. He heard Kari sigh, crying softly, "Mother, please..."

"If all you thought I was going to do was make things worse, than why did you even call?" he asked bitterly. "Maybe I should just leave."

"Tai, you know that's not what I meant. I love you - Izzy, too - but you know how your father gets." She tried to reach for her son, but wavered. It had been so long since... "I suppose it wouldn't hurt if you saw him. For just a moment."

"Thanks, mom." He couldn't be mad at her. She'd only ever loved him, despite her outbursts.

Kari took her mother by the hand and Tai held his breath. He wished his mother had let him leave, but he knew he had to stay. _'Courage,'_ he thought. _'I can face this.'_ He reached absently to rub the scar on his chest before pushing open the door and stepping inside.

The room was blindingly white, the only spray of color being a vase of dusty plastic flowers glues to the windowsill. His father lay in the bed, his dark hair, streaked heavily with gray, fanned out on a small, lumpy pillow, making him look deathly pale. If it weren't for the heart monitor beeping regularly, Tai would have thought him long gone. The young man licked his lips, calling upon his long lost trait to see him through this moment.

"Dad?" He could barely hear himself over his own racing heartbeat. "Dad, it's me."

There was a terrifying pause. One in which it seemed the world would fade away to a darkness he would never see through. His father's face twisted and one eye cracked open.

"What are you doing here?" The man's voice was hoarse and unpleasant.

"Mom called. She said you almost died last night. I wanted to make sure you were going to be ok."

His father turned his head to look out the window. "I was. Until you came by."

"C'mon, don't be like that." Tai grabbed a chair and pulled it to his father's bedside. "We haven't seen each other in almost six years. You still can't forgive me?"

His father's silence was more than enough of an answer.

"Look," Tai sighed deeply. "I'm tired of apologizing for who I am. I'm tired of telling my children that their grandfather doesn't want to see them. I'm tired of not feeling any pride in what I do because my own dad can't stand to look at me." He looked at his hands in his lap, trying to see through his tears. "I'm tired of being so scared that you'll die before you know I love you, and I always will."

"If you truly loved me, you would have never let the Kamiya line end," came the icy reply. "Your sister married into Takaishi, but that was expected. Girls never carry on their father's names. But you. All you had to do was marry that Sora girl when you had the chance. Before she moved on to that other boy."

"I've told you, dad, over and over. I never liked her like that - I've never liked any girl like that!" Tai wiped his eyes. "Why can't you see that? Why can't you see that who I'm with as nothing to do with the love I have for you?"

His father turned his head. For a brief, wonderful moment, he looked his son in the eye, and Tai was certain he'd finally made it through to the man. But he looked through the small window on the door and his pale face twisted into a dark grimace.

"Get out. Leave me and the Kamiya name alone."

Tai gripped his hands into fists. His father's words bit into his soul, and he bit his quivering lip. There was nothing more that could be said. He stood, the chair he was in clattering to the floor. His father just closed his eyes against the noise, blocking out the world.

The door was heavy and it required all the strength he had left in his shaking arms to escape the small room. His mother was whispering to Kari, and despite her outburst earlier she was hugging Izzy tightly.

"Tai, how was he?" Kari asked. Izzy disentangled himself from his in-law, taking Tai by the hand.

"Like he always is, I guess." He was grateful for his husband's calming presence. "Still thinks I abandoned the family."

"Tai," his mother said, "you know he doesn't mean any of that. It's just that when your grandfather died, he left some... awful memories with your father. He just wants the family name to remain untarnished."

Izzy spoke up, just loud enough to be heard. "I offered to take the family name, but Mr. Kamiya..."

"Dad said he didn't want any pity," Tai spat.

"I'm so sorry, Tai..." his mother apologized. She looked away. "I shouldn't have let him keep us away. You're my son. Izzy you... you too. And I love you both."

Tai patted his mother's arm and Izzy gave Kari a hug. "Call me when he's out. Maybe... Maybe he'll want to speak to his grandkids then."

* * *

><p>Night had fallen. A nurse had come by to check on his vitals.<p>

"It's so quiet in here," she said. "How about the news?" She turned the TV on, placing the remote just out of his reach.

"In sports news," the reporter said excitedly, "Japan won the World Cup in Italy, with a score of 12 to 3 all thanks to ace striker Taichi 'Tai' Izumi. He's back in Japan tonight with his husband and children, taking a well deserved rest."

Kenichi twisted his face into a grimace, and he turned away. He was still too weak to reach up and cover his ears. He refused to acknowledge the aching loneliness in his chest, imagining that it was the heart attack. It certainly wasn't the pain of turning his son away.

The nurse smiled and fluffed his pillow. She saw the look on his face, but he didn't seem in pain, so she hummed lightly to calm him. "That boy who came to visit earlier, he looks a lot like that soccer star, doesn't he?" Kenichi growled. "He seems like such a nice boy. You should be glad that he came by."

She made a mark on his chart and closed the door behind her. The TV was showing a picture of his son's team, celebrating the win of the World Cup. He took a deep breath and whispered into the stale air, "I am glad..."


End file.
